Chapter 12: True Colors (Part 2)

Office of The Winterville Chronicle
Warsaw Street
10:15 PM

As Troy Harrison and the motley investigative team finally learned the identity of the person whom they believed to be the vicious serial killer preying on the town of Winterville, arrogant yet intrepid reporter M.W. Hawk and his loyal assistant Freddie Heggs were busy at their office, working on what the two men had mutually hoped would be their special, lurid article on the Black Star Killer.

In actuality, the home of the small daily newspaper was nothing more than a small, narrowed rented office space that sat on the far end of a refurbished industrial warehouse that had once been the home of the Sunny Day Automotive Company, which had been Winterville's infamous industrial hub from 1900 to early 1989.

All that sat within the small room was an outdated fax machine that had its heyday sometime in the mid-80's, two very decrepit and well-used oak desks that Hawk had purchased for $50 at a yard sale about a decade earlier with old white outdoor porch chairs behind them for seating, three old gray dust-covered file cabinets positioned against the room's far wall, and a 1990's-era printing press that had been given to the Chronicle by another daily paper that had stopped printing physical newspapers.

Using the only piece of current modern technology in the entire office aside from his camera and the office internet router, Freddie Heggs typed on his MacBook Air M2 laptop to continue his research on Sheriff Harrison and his colleagues.

"Hey M.W.," Heggs said to his boss, "Did you know that Troy Harrison once shot and killed a prison guard who shot and wounded his partner?"

"You don't say," Hawk replied from his seat behind the small desk beside Heggs, "Where and when was this?"

"Chicago," Heggs said, "Around the fall of Twenty-Ten according to this archived news article. Apparently, Harrison was a detective with Chicago PD back then. Ostensibly, that's where he met that giant gruff-voiced sergeant friend of his, Hank Voight." Heggs' eyes then moved to the opposite side of his screen. "According to this," he continued, "he has quite the interesting history himself."

"Oh," an almost gleeful Hawk replied, "Please, Monsieur, do tell."

Heggs chuckled. "He's a Chicago native with twenty-plus years on the job with the Chicago PD," he said as he read from the screen, "He was arrested in Twenty-Twelve for official misconduct."

"What did he get for that big no-no?" Hawk inquired.

"According to this," Heggs continued as he resumed reading, "Not much of a consequence, actually. The charges were later dropped by the Cook County State's Attorney and Voight was reinstated to CPD, where he not only received a promotion to Sergeant but was allowed to take the helm of the department's elite Intelligence Unit. He's been there ever since."

"How provocative," Hawk replied, "Anything noteworthy about their exploits?"

Heggs smirked in retort. "More red flags than Russia during the Soviet era," he said, "Voight ended up bringing in the detective who arrested him, a fella named Antonio Dawson, to work in Intelligence once he took over. It says here that Dawson went off the reservation a bunch of times, most notably when his son and daughter were kidnapped in two separate incidents that were years apart."

Hawk shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he replied, "I don't have kids, as you know, but I imagine any parent would lose their shit and abandon all reason in those situations."

"That's far from it, though, boss" Heggs said, "Three of his officers have faced criminal prosecution during their time under Voight's command. Two of them, Kevin Atwater and Adam Ruzek, ended up being fully exonerated. However, Detective Alvin Olinsky was arrested and convicted in Twenty-Eighteen for the murder of a guy named Kevin Bingham."

"Who's that?" Hawk inquired.

Heggs typed and clicked a few things on his MacBook before replying. "According to this archived CPD report from Twenty-Sixteen," he said, "He was the chief suspect in the shooting death of Voight's son, Justin. Bigham apparently disappeared sometime after that, but when his body was discovered, they found Olinsky's DNA on the corpse. Olinsky was stabbed during a prison brawl and later died from his injuries."

"How'd Voight and Harrison end up crossing paths?" Hawk asked.

"Voight and Olinsky were temporarily assigned to the Homicide squad in Harrison's CPD district after Harrison's partner was shot in late Twenty-Ten," Heggs replied, "Harrison and Voight were partners for a bit until his partner recovered."

"It just amazes me how loyal some partners are to one another," Hawk said in a tone that was even more self-important, "especially cops."

Heggs chuckled once again before shutting his MacBook and getting up from his seat before going over to Hawk and looking him straight in the eye. "You're one to talk about partners," he said, "You selfish, cold-hearted old fuck."

Before the reporter could even have a chance to respond to the abrupt yet serious insult, all the color drained from M.W. Hawk's face and his body was enveloped by a severe white hot pain as he looked down to see that Heggs had stabbed him in the lower right side of his abdomen. He was even still holding the razor sharp five-and-a-half-inch boot knife.

Heggs laughed maniacally as Hawk slumped backward onto the cold concrete floor, sending the white porch chair in which he had been sitting sliding toward the wall behind him, at which point he cruelly pulled the knife from his victim's gut. He continued laughing as the badly wounded Hawk tried to struggle, flopping like a fish out of water as he held his abdomen to slow the bleeding.

"I wouldn't keep trying to defend yourself if I were you, Mitchell" Heggs continued, "I just stabbed you in the right side of your colon. Based on how much you appear to be bleeding, I think I must've punctured your marginal artery. You should really conserve your strength if you want to make it out of this alive, pal."

Hawk's eyes began to get heavy as the unyielding pain relented. "Freddie," he rasped.

Heggs smirked. "Actually," he replied, "My name is Ryan, Ryan Cardenas." He knelt down to look him dead in the eye once again. "Nice to meet you, sir" he said before standing back up and making his way out of the office.

Hawk, despite being so badly wounded, managed to roll himself sideways and slide over to his desk, still keeping one hand over his stomach wound. He used his free hand to reach up and pull his desk phone over to the corner of his desk, grab the receiver, and carefully dial 911.

Harrison Family Camp
5 Minutes Later

Harrison and the team were busy bidding goodbye to Jayden Porter and Jeanette Franco as they were getting ready to leave for the evening. The cheerfulness of the situation was suddenly cut down by a loud emergency tone that sounded over Porter's portable radio.

"Winterville Dispatch to all available units," Katie Alvarez's voice said from the radio after the tone ceased, "We have a Ten-Fifty-Two, a medical emergency and request for an ambulance at number Fifty-Five, that's five-five, Warsaw Street. Caller advised having been the victim of a stabbing. EMS is on the way, rolling Code Three. Suspect may still be in the area. Approach with caution."

Everyone traded looks with one another for a quick beat. "That's the Chronicle office," Harrison said before looking to both Porter and Franco, "You guys are going to need backup."

Voight then looked to the others. "You guys heard the man!" he said in his usual authoritative tone, "Let's go!"

Everyone arrived at the Winterville Chronicle office in record time, where they found two Winterville police cars, an ambulance, and two Winterville County Sheriff's cars already on scene. With everyone else in tow close behind him, Chief Porter approached WPD night shift officer Diana Munroe, who was guarding the front door of the office. Officer Munroe was a tall and athletically-built green-eyed redhead in her early 30's who was clad in her black police uniform and black boots. Her hair was tied back in a braided ponytail.

"What happened here, Diana?" Porter inquired.

"It's M.W. Hawk, Chief" Munroe replied, "He's been stabbed in the stomach. It's pretty bad."

It was then that the responding paramedics rolled M.W Hawk out on the gurney toward the waiting ambulance. Feeling sudden concern for the wounded man, Harrison went to his side and squeezed his hand.

"Hey Hawk," Harrison said in a careworn tone, "It's Troy Harrison. We're here."

The mortally wounded reporter managed to slowly open his heavy eyes and look at the thoughtful sheriff. "Hey Sheriff," Hawk groggily said, "I didn't think you'd care enough about me to show up."

Harrison managed a chuckle in response before switching back to investigator mode. "Who did this to you, man?" he asked.

"Freddie Heggs," Hawk replied, "But he said that wasn't his name. He said it was Ryan…Ryan C…" the weakened man's voice then trailed off at that, and his eyes shut once again.

Noticing a dangerous increase in Hawk's heartbeat on the cardiac monitor, a young brunette female paramedic looked to Harrison. "Sir," she said to him, "We have to get him into our rig now. We're taking him to Rachel Hickory." She referred to Rachel Hickory Medical Center, a Level I trauma facility just across the state line in Lemoyne, New Hampshire.

Harrison nodded in retort before whispering in Hawk's ear. "Hang in there, you cast-iron son of a bitch," he whispered before walking away to rejoin the team.

He walked inside the office to find everyone taking in the scene. "Guys," Harrison said to the group as a whole, "Hawk told me before he passed out that Freddie Heggs was the one who stabbed him. He also said that he revealed himself to be 'Ryan'. He lost consciousness before he was able to say his last name."

Porter's mouth went agape upon hearing this. "Hold on," he said, "Freddie Heggs is Ryan Cardenas? This sack of shit's been hiding in plain sight in our town for a fucking year and none of us noticed?"

Hank Voight put a hand on the chief's shoulder. "Easy, Chief" he said, "You guys are only human. The true question is, where is Cardenas right now?"

"Munroe told me that the Chronicle's Mercury Zephyr station wagon wasn't in the lot outside like it usually is," Franco said, "I'll have Katie put out an emergency Be-on-The-Lookout."

Porter nodded. "Yes," he replied, "Do that. And have her look up Freddie Heggs' address."

Hailey Upton and Jay Halstead then stepped up. "We can hit the address as soon as it comes through," Halstead said.

"I'll go with you," Bill Harvey added.

"And I'm coming, too" Juan Cortez interjected, "I trained this bastard. I want to look him straight in his eye."

Harrison nodded. "I suggest that the rest of us fan out and look for Cardenas in the immediate area," he said, "Everyone keep your weapons at the ready and your vests on. We have a tactically-trained, armed suspect on the loose. This fucker's killed enough people already. Let's try to bring him in without incident and without injury to any of us."

"I'll head up to Hickory and watch over Hawk," Robbie Mannell chimed in, "If he makes it through surgery, I'll try to get his statement."

"Right on," Harrison replied, "On your way there, call Lemoyne PD and medical center security to beef up protection around the hospital campus just in case."

Mannell nodded before heading out.

As everyone else took their cue and filed out of the office to fulfill their assigned tasks, Harrison knelt down to the drying pool of Hawk's blood, which was surrounded by a small pile of gauze discarded by the paramedics. He sighed deeply as he felt for the suffering reporter.

[Author's Note: In case of my "One Chicago" fans are confused, that reference to Atwater was a nod to that episode of "Chicago Justice" where Atwater was charged with the death of a man who died in custody and was later exonerated.]